The Dark and Forbidding Land

by Wesley Allison

  “Cissy, isn't it?”

  “Yew Sada.”

  “Yes, I know who I am. What do you want?”

  The reptilian handed him an envelope, and started to turn around.

  “Hold on,” he said. He fished out a pfennig from his pocket and handed it to her. “Here.”

  After the lizzie had left, he opened the envelope to find a note from his mother. It read: “Meet Mrs. C at the Mayor's office 9AM on the 13th. Don't come by the house until then. Love, Mother.”

  It was just as well that Saba didn't meet the governor the following day. He had to run physical training drills on the new militiamen. New militiamen were only required to serve six months, yet there were more than two hundred militiamen and a new group of forty inductees had started on the first of the month. Saba put them through a series of calisthenics, followed by a two-mile run with a full pack. Six of them passed out before returning to the base. That didn't mean they were out though. They would have ample opportunity to prove themselves, and if they couldn't meet the physical requirements of the job, they would be given lighter duty in the colonial government.

  At afternoon tea, Saba was cornered by Eamon Shrubb.

  “What have you been up to?” asked Shrubb.

  “Running with the new recruits.”

  “I mean besides that. I haven't seen you for a few days.”

  “Are you keeping track of me?” asked Saba. “People are going to think you're a spy.”

  “Nothing like that,” said Shrubb. “Just wondering.”

  “This spy business is going to turn me into a paranoid ass,” said Saba to himself, when Shrubb had wandered away. Still, he thought that it might be wise to watch out for the private who liked to follow him to the governor's home.

  The next day was the twelfth and Saba spent most of the day relaxing. He stayed on his bunk and read The Wild Woman, walking down the hill for fish and chips at lunchtime, skipping tea entirely, and eating in the mess for supper. It was bangers and mash night.

  At 9:00 in the morning on the thirteenth, Saba stepped into the Mayor's Office. Miss Gertz, the mayor's secretary smiled at him. She could have been considered pretty, though she wore horn-rimmed glasses and she had her black hair pulled back into a tight bun. She ushered him past her desk to the mayor's private office. Mayor Korlann was absent, but in his place sat Governor Dechantagne-Calliere. She looked as beautiful as Saba had ever seen her, in a charcoal dress with puffed sleeves and white lace around the neck.

  “Good morning Governor.”

  “Good morning.”

  “I wanted to see you the other day, but your lizzie wouldn't let me in the house.”

  “Yes,” said Mrs. C, stopping to purse her lips. “I thought it would be best if you didn't come to the house directly after meeting with Brockton. Of course I had no idea that you would cause such a scene, obviating any attempted stealth on my part.”

  “Um, sorry.”

  “So, what did Brockton tell you?”

  Saba went over his entire conversation with the wizard from the Secret Service. Mrs. Dechantagne-Calliere smiled when he mentioned the possibility that ships from Freedonia might be subsidized, but scowled at the mention of her husband's name. He also threw in the information he gleaned from his contact with Senta concerning the possibility of Mr. Streck being a wizard.

  “You will meet with Brockton again,” she said. “As for the ships from Freedonia, they will continue, but you may tell him that subsidies would be appreciated. As for my husband, he is not to worry. Mercy is not interested in dealing with the Freedonian government and if some of them might try to take advantage of him, well, we will be there to see that it doesn't happen.”

  “What about Streck?” asked Saba.

  “You will watch him when he is out of my house. While he is inside the house, I have someone else who will watch him.”

  “I have other duties at the base.”

  “No, you don't,” said Mrs. C, picking up her muff and sliding one hand into it. “Not anymore.”

  She opened the office door and left Saba standing where he was. He took a deep breath and let it out. So be it. Stepping out of the office, he stopped and leaned on Miss Gertz's desk absentmindedly.

  “Can I help you with something, Corporal?”

  “What?”

  “Can I help you with something?”

  “Yes, Miss Gertz. Would you care to join me for lunch today?”

  Chapter Nine: The Ruin

  The Dechantagne dining room table looked extremely empty this morning. Mrs. Godwin was in her usual spot, as was Mrs. Colbshallow. Professor Calliere was there and his solicitor Mr. Streck was still visiting. Yuah sat to the right of her husband. But there were four empty chairs. Saba Colbshallow had not stopped by for breakfast with his mother for several days and the empty spot so often filled with an ad-hoc dining guest was unoccupied. Little Iolana was sleeping in and so was not in her highchair. But it was Iolanthe's absence which made the table seem much emptier than it would if anyone else happened to be gone. It was quite a boring meal, aside from Mr. Streck spilling his tea in his lap. Yuah was picking at her eggs, sausages, and white pudding not because of her sister-in-law's absence, but because of the unpleasant cramping she felt in her abdomen.

  After the family had finished breakfast and everyone got up from the table, Yuah took Terrence's arm.

  “Where did you want to go?” she asked.

  “Blind man or no, I can find my way around my own house.”

  “I'm sure you can. I was just trying to be helpful.” She let go of his arm. “I suppose you are going to the parlor to just sit.”

  “I don't know. What are you going to do?”

  “I thought I would go upstairs and lie down for a bit.”

  “Do you want company?” he asked, smiling suggestively.

  “No I don't, you horrible, insatiable man.”

  “You didn't want me just sitting around in the parlor.”

  “I'm going upstairs to lie down because I have a headache,” said Yuah.

  “I don't think I'm any more insatiable than any other man.”

  “If that is true,” she said, leaving him at the bottom of the stairs, “then your whole race is horrible.”

  At the top of the stairs, Yuah turned left. It was a short walk past the balcony on the left side and Mrs. Colbshallow's room and the nursery on the right. Her own room was at the end of the hallway. She thought of it as her own room despite the fact that Terrence shared it with her. Neither was inclined to follow the custom among the upper class of having separate bedrooms for husband and wife. She was already looking at wallpaper and other furnishings, though she had to do so from catalogs brought all the way from Brechalon. She knew she wanted pink with lots of lace and she knew that her brass bed would have curtains around it that matched the curtains on the window. At this moment though the bed was a simple wooden frame holding up a single very simple mattress and the only curtains on the windows were a pair of old sheets that she had cut and hemmed.

  She sat down on the edge of the bed and tossed herself back upon it, her arms stretched out above her head. The ceiling above her was smooth white plaster, just like the bare walls. She felt another tug in her abdomen. It was the thirteenth of Festuary. She had been married for twenty-three days. She and Terrence had already been together as man and wife at least fifteen times. Yuah was sure that was more than most people did it in their entire lifetime. Why wasn't she pregnant already? Who could she ask about it? She could ask Mrs. C or Mrs. G, but then she would have to look at them every day after having asked them. Mrs. Bratihn might be a good person to talk to about it. She'd been married twice and had several children. Or maybe Mrs. Leubking.

  The baby started to cry in the next room, and Yuah pulled herself up and walked in to check on her. She turned the corner in the nursery and jumped as she saw the reptilian creature leaning over the crib. But the tiny yellow fringe of a skirt told her that it was one of the nanny lizzies.
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br />   “You there. What are you doing? Which one are you?”

  The lizzies didn’t seem to startle the way the humans so often did, but even so the creature turned around quickly. As soon as it did, she could tell by the coloring that it was the one called Kheesie. The creature rolled its eyes around in a way that Yuah was beginning to recognize as fear, or at least nervousness. Stepping quickly past Kheesie, Yuah looked down into the crib. Iolana was red-faced with anger at having her diaper changed, but was otherwise unhurt.

  “I’ll take it from here,” she said.

  Cleaning the baby’s bottom with the washrag, she tossed it and the old diaper into the ceramic chamber pot under the crib, which she then handed to the lizzie. She powdered Iolana and then pinned on a new diaper. Picking up the still crying child, she pressed her to her shoulder and turned around to find the lizardman still there.

  “Are you going to stand there looking stupid all day, or are you going to take that out and empty it?”

  Kheesie stared blankly.

  “Take it out!” and as the creature hurried out of the room, she called after her, “And clean it properly.”

  She patted Iolana on the back and bounced her up and down.

  “It’s so hard to find good help.” Then she burst out laughing at herself. How quickly she was turning into Iolanthe. My, what a horrible thought.

  She pulled the baby away from her shoulder and looked into her face. Iolana was giving her a puzzled look in return.

  “Don’t look at me like that. You know Auntie Yuah. I’m your favorite.”

  Iolana blew a spit bubble.

  “Look at you, you are so advanced. Already walking and now you’re going to talk to Auntie Yuah, aren’t you?”

  The child made a valiant effort at speaking by saying “boo-uh.”

  “Everyone knows who you belong to, don’t they? You have your mother’s eyes, you do. I don’t know about the rest of you though. Your nose and mouth don’t really look like her or your father. Come to that, I don’t really see any of your father in you.”

  Iolana gooed in reply.

  Sitting down in the rocking chair to the right of the crib, Yuah sat the baby on her knee and began rocking back and forth. Iolana let her auntie rock her for only a few minutes, and then wiggled down to the floor. She dropped down to all fours and crawled around the room, but finding nothing interesting there, Iolana used the corner of the crib to climb to her feet and took off out the door.

  “Oh no you don’t,” said Yuah, chasing after her. “You’ll take a tumble down the stairs.”

  She and Iolana both almost ran into Kheesie near the top of the staircase as the lizzie was returning with the chamber pot.

  “Take her down to the kitchen and have Mrs. C make her a bottle, then maybe you take her for a walk around the garden.”

  “Yes,” responded the lizzie, who scooping up the child, took her in to the nursery where she dropped off the now clean chamber pot. Then she carried the child downstairs.

  Yuah went back to her bedroom to lie down and this time she did doze off. When she woke up, for a moment she didn’t know where she was. She had been dreaming that she was back home in her room in the Dechantagne house in Brech. Slowly awareness returned to her that this was a different room in a different Dechantagne house—one in which she was one of the Dechantagnes. Sitting up, she looked toward the doorway and saw the hulking form of a lizzie just outside.

  “Kheesie,” she called. But when the lizzie turned around and poked its long nose into the room, she saw that it was in fact the other one—Cissy.

  “Cissy, come in here. I want to change dresses.”

  The lizzie approached her quite close and looked up and down at the brown skirt and white blouse that she was wearing. Then she turned her head and gave Yuah an unnerving look with her left eye.

  “This is too plain,” said Yuah. “I have to look good all the time now.”

  “Charcoal day dress,” said the lizzie, carefully enunciating each word.

  “I was thinking one of my gowns. Maybe the yellow one.”

  “Too early. Not teatime. Charcoal day dress.”

  “Oh, it is too early, isn’t it? The charcoal day dress? Do you think so?”

  Cissy hissed affirmative, not bothering to make the up and down head bob that humans associated with an agreement. Yuah though had gleaned enough of lizzie behavior that she now knew what that hiss meant.

  “As you say then,” said Yuah, and then when the lizzie didn’t move, she said, “go and get it.”

  Cissy brought the dress in question from the closet and helped the woman change. She helped Yuah tie the white tie that went with the dress and then brought her the charcoal boater that matched it. Yuah admired herself in front of the cheval glass.

  “Yes, you were right. This was the correct choice. But now I look like I’m going somewhere, and I have no place to go.”

  “Go whalk.”

  “I’ve walked every inch of the garden. Without any flowers, it’s bloody boring. And you know I don’t like to walk anywhere else alone.”

  “Cissy go.”

  “Don’t you have some household work that you are supposed to do?”

  The lizzie, in a very human gesture, shrugged her shoulders.

  “What time is it, exactly?” Yuah walked to the bedroom door and looked down the hall at the grandfather clock at the far end. “Why, it’s not even eleven. Mrs. Colbshallow will be having the luncheon soon. If I decide to take a walk later, I’ll call you.”

  Yuah went downstairs and visited first the parlor and then the library, but found Terrence in neither location. She poked her head in Iolanthe’s study, but he wasn’t there either. She started for the kitchen and almost collided with Mrs. Colbshallow.

  “Have you seen my husband, Yadira?”

  “I believe he left about an hour ago.”

  “Left? Where did he go? Who did he go with?”

  “I believe he went alone.”

  “Why did you let him go?” asked Yuah. “He’s a blind man! He can’t be wandering around Birmisia by himself!”

  “Calm yourself, dear,” said Mrs. Colbshallow. “I haven’t told Master Terrence what to do since he was twelve. As for wandering around by himself, I sent Sirrek to follow him, at a discreet distance of course. I wouldn’t want one of my best lizzies shot.”

  “Oh. Well, I’m sorry. I hope I didn’t sound hysterical.”

  “And if you did, who cares,” said Mrs. Colbshallow smiling. “Hysterics are the prerogative of a woman. But you have seemed out of sorts for a week now. Is there something I can do for you?”

  “Yes, no, yes, maybe.”

  “What is it, dear,” said the older woman, putting her arm around Yuah’s shoulders.

  “It’s… I’m not pregnant.”

  Mrs. Colbshallow looked confused. “Did you think that you were?”

  “No, it’s just that, well… he’s been all over me.”

  “That’s to be expected,” said Mrs. Colbshallow with a chuckle, “considering how recently you’ve been married and what a lovely young woman you are.”

  “He can’t even see if I’m lovely or not.”

  “I’ll wager he can feel you though.”

  Yuah felt the heat rising to her face.

  “What if I’m barren?” she asked.

  “Pish-posh. It will all happen in its own good time. Why, I was married for almost three years before Saba came along. Stop worrying.”

  “Thank you, Yadira,” said Yuah, giving her a hug.

  Then they stood looking at each other for a moment and Yuah remembered why she had decided that Mrs. C was not the person to talk to about this. She struggled to think of something else to say.

  “Um, Yadira…”

  “Yes?”

  “Um… do you have Cissy assigned to do something in particular?”

  “I find I don’t have to. That first group of lizzies was quite a find. They know what needs to be done without much direction
from me at all. Not like this lot that’s in the kitchen now. I think it’s because our first lizzies came from Tserich and these come from Chusstuss. Talking of which, I’d better get back to the kitchen before they burn the house down.”

  Stepping back into the library, Yuah sat down in the large overstuffed chair that Terrence occupied when he was there. He spent a great deal of time in the library, especially considering there were no books that he could now read. Face down on the small occasional table next to the chair was a leather bound book. She picked it up and looked at the inside title page. It was an analysis of the Holy Scriptures. As she flipped through the pages, she noted that the book covered only the fifty-two books that were common to both the Zaeri and the Kafirites, and did not discuss the thirty-two additions of Kafira’s apostles. This reminded her, as she was reminded almost daily, that she was the sole Zaeri in the house. Back in Brech, there had been dozens of household staff who shared her religion, where as now the staff didn’t even share her species.

  She looked up at the door and saw Cissy again.

  “Are you following me?”

  Cissy slowly moved her head from side to side.

  “Well, see that you don’t. I don’t like being spied upon.”

  Cissy moved off down the hallway and Yuah, putting the book back where it had sat, got up and exited the room. Just before she stepped into the parlor, she turned around and looked back to see the lizardman entering library. She went back, peeking around the corner, to find Cissy examining the book she had just had in her hands.

  “What are you doing?” she demanded.

  Cissy rolled her eyes around.

  “You can’t read that, can you?”

  The lizzie shrugged. Yuah walked over and snatched the book from her clawed hands. She pointed at the open page.